News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-11-10

OF the cottages across the street, an
swallowed up the form of passer-b
on her own sidewalk. Shreds of CLOTH
bits of pasteboard, and great sheets c
paper were caught up by the wind
along with the clouds of dust and gravel
and borne onward in its mad flight Il
a lower latitude the great velocity O
the wind, coupled with the force of
far weightier atmosphere, would
have given the storm the force of a
cyclone. As it was, it would do little
mischief beyond arousing the tempers O.
mankind and uprooting sundry out
| houses built upon insecure foundations.
Mrs. Meredith, with GOODNESS and pa
thence born of experience, bore this as
suit upon her domicile with charming
equanlmlty. Moving about the house
she proceeded to collect number of
long and slender sand bags, indispens-
able adiuncts to the tidy New Mexican
housewife, and to arrange them in their
accustomed places over door and win
dow sills, thus fighting the intrusive
element on the homeopathic principle.
All that day, and the next, she waited
IN melancholy expectancy, not knowing
what minute the familiar step might be
heard on her little porch. On the third
day the storm subsidized, and the fearless
eyes of the despairing woman beheld
only desolute plain, hanked by pitiless
hills, and intersected by the white road,
along which no sign of life could be
detected. The mountains in all direc-
tlons had renewed their crests of snow.
Succeeding days moved by in tortur,
ing suspense. AS time progressed, the
suns rays beat ever more warmly upon
the earth, and by the middle of March
the heat at noon day was like foretaste
of summer. Passers-by, as they neared
thes mall cottage, learned to expect to see
a vision of pair of imploring eyes at
door or window, or at nightfall woman
form, enveloped in a worsted shawl
pacing up and down behind the double
cacth and trio of sickly cherry trees
which constituted the sole verdure in
the garden. Mariana in the moated
gange," quoted fe W of the more mis-
chievous, in wilful travesty of the sit
uatlon, for his wife's anxiety over Mere
dith's prolonged absence was the subject
of general comment, meeting with little
among those accustomed to
the uncertainties of frontier life.
Two men failed to share in the pre-
vailing apathy, David Rowell, on his
regular horseback ride before breakfast
each morning, never failed to circle |
about his partners house, and as the
sad, questioning face presented itself to
him locular inquiry left his lips.
''Well, Mrs. Meredith, has that miss
ng lord and master of yours turned up
yet 2"
A faltering negative would greet him.
Exactly as l prophesied. You might
IS well make up your mind you'll never
zee him again. Some of those pretty
Mexicans down there have led him cap
i've" At which the lady he addressed,
moved by her wifely fealty and love,
Tould break out in passionate protest,
nd lose her anxiety in wrathful indig-
alton, while the horseman, as he turned
oward the country, change his gay look
banter for an expression of savage !
rOcity, and charged his steed upon the
ickly yuccas, and mildly anathematiz- q
the recreant spouse. a
At twilight an insignificant figure
tn bowed shoulders and a shock of n
shy hair, going silently about his ST
ores in the back yard, stole furtive n
lnces at the sad-eyed young matron le
d returned to his lonely shanty to sit h
id brood over a weighty project incu- Ii
lting in his troubled brain. 1t was
understood throughout the +
that some dark mystery at
.ched to old Dresden, the concealment |
his proper appellation and adoption {
the name of his native city being re-
arded as most eliminating evidence. {
tut the old fellow kept on the even '
enor of his way, attending to his small ]
tock of poultry and selling his eggs and I
hickens at an advance of twenty five
er cent on the market price, wholly in
ifferent to the praise or blame of the
est of humanity.
Early in the third week after the
oung prospector's promised return
here began to be little stir in down
own circles. News of fresh Apache
had been received, which
rgued i'll for any unprotected prospec-
ors in their vicinity. From laughing
Indifference the business men began to
Iiscuss the chances of Meredith s safety.
'He was q gallant fellow" remarked
ne. 1t was noticeable that he employ
d the past tense.
''It seems ply to be inactive" OBJ
erved another. eff any of the men
want to go out and look for him, I'll be
1ne of them" But it was generally
conceded that the time for help was
,ast
David Rowell, who was silent audi
or on these occasions, persevered in his
Iaily rides and never hinched in his es-
programme; but the face he
urned to the plains after these recon
res had lost its savage expression and
vas fixed and stern in its pity for the
-oung wife, over whose head was sus-
,ended a Damoclean sword, liable at
ny moment to fall.